Sarah J. Banola

Sarah Banola is a senior counsel in the litigation department at Cooper, White & Cooper LLP's San Francisco office. She concentrates her practice in the areas of employment law and professional responsibility. Her employment law background includes defense of claims of discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, harassment and wage and hour violations. Ms. Banola also counsels clients on employee separations, severance agreements, classification of employees as exempt or non-exempt, disability, investigations of sexual harassment complaints, leave and accommodation issues, and personnel policies. She has represented employers in proceedings before the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, the Employment Development Department, the California Labor Commissioner, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, and the National Labor Relations Board. Ms. Banola also represents lawyers and law firms in matters related to legal ethics, legal negligence, attorney-client fee disputes, professional discipline, State Bar admission, conflicts of interest, disqualification motions and law firm break-ups.

She earned her B.A. from Grinnell College in 1999 and her J.D. with honors in 2002 from Rutgers School of Law-Newark and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. While at Rutgers, Ms. Banola served as an Articles Editor for the Computer and Technology Law Journal and Vice Chair of the Public Interest Law Foundation. She also was the recipient of the second place award for the California Western Law Review Intellectual Property Writing Competition.

After law school, Ms. Banola served as a law clerk to the Honorable Louisa S. Porter, Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of California, and as a law clerk to the Honorable James J. Petrella, Presiding Judge of the Appellate Division for the Superior Court of New Jersey. Prior to joining Cooper in May 2007, Ms. Banola was a commercial litigation associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP's Palo Alto office.

Ms. Banola is a member of the State Bar of California, the Bar Association of San Francisco, and the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers. She serves as Chair of the Bar Association of San Francisco's Legal Ethics Committee and volunteers with the Bar Association of San Francisco's Consumer Debt Defense and Education Clinic. She served as a co-chair for the Queen's Bench Amicus Briefs Committee in 2008. She is admitted to practice before the United States District Courts for the Northern and Eastern Districts of California and before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Speaker, Privacy Best Practices for Lawyers: What Every Law Practice Needs to Know About Privacy Law (Law Offices of Diana Maier Lunchtime Legal Chat, January 2016)

Author, Attorney-Client Billing Statements Are Protected By Attorney-Client Privilege Regardless of Whether They Contain Legal Opinions or Advice (The Bar Association of San Francisco Bulletin, July 2015)